Following Me (2 page)

She had only been to Chicago once
with her parents during her junior year of high school.  They’d had some kind
of music appearance, and she had spent most of her time in the hotel room while
her younger sister had followed her parents around the event.  The record label
her parents worked for had put them up in a suite, and in no particular order,
Devon had alternated between the Jacuzzi tub, pool table, and minibar.  She had
regretted not getting to see much more of the city.

She craned her neck, looking
around the giant room for her friend.  Hadley was supposed to be picking her up. 
Devon wasn’t about to try to traverse the subway or L all by herself.

She turned around and nearly ran
smack dab into someone.

“Sorry,” she muttered, moving
around the stranger.

Then, she found Hadley standing
there.  She was staring down at her cell phone, ignoring the masses swarming
around her.

“Hadley!” Devon called.  “Hadley
Bishop!”

Hadley turned around and rushed
toward Devon.  “Hey,” she cried, throwing her arms around Devon.  “So glad you
made it.  I just couldn’t believe it when you called and said you were coming
to the city!”  Hadley released her and took a step back.

“I know.  I’m so last minute,”
Devon said.

“Oh, whatever,” Hadley said
shoving her phone into her front pocket.  “You know you always have a place
with me.”

“Thanks,” Devon said
appreciatively.

“Need help with anything?” Hadley
asked, looking Devon up and down to see if she had other stuff with her.

“Nope.  Just this.”  Devon
motioned to her oversized purse and suitcase.

“Alrighty!  This way then,”
Hadley told her, motioning back toward the trains.

Devon followed with a smile
plastered on her face.  She had missed her friend more than life itself. 
Hadley had graduated from Wash U in December, leaving Devon without a roommate
for the spring semester.  Hadley always did exactly what she wanted.  For
instance, she had graduated early, moved to Chicago, and accepted a job at a
high-end marketing firm.  It was just something Devon would have never thought
to do.  In fact, this whole trip was something that Hadley, not Devon, would do.

Thankfully, Hadley knew her way
around the metro.  They took a seat on the train, and Devon angled her body to
face her friend.  She had forgotten how much they looked alike.

Devon’s parents had always said
that she looked like country music royalty.  She didn’t know if it was because
she had a small, curvy body that looked great on camera or because her mother
had started bleaching her naturally light brown hair in middle school. 
Magnifying the country music image, her parents had dressed her in cowboy boots
and a hat, had her belt out every song on the radio, and paraded her around to
every music venue they could get her into.  Since leaving for St. Louis, she
had resisted all of these things except for her blonde hair.  She hadn’t been
able to get rid of the blonde.

Hadley was taller than Devon by a
couple of inches.  They had the same blonde hair.  Though Devon had seen Hadley
change it to black, brown, red, and every color in between in the two and a
half years they had lived together.  They used to have similar styles, but now
Hadley was moving toward business professional, and Devon was stuck in her
jeans, even in the summer heat.  It made Devon wish she had packed some
dresses.

“So,” Hadley began, “are you
hungry?”  She crossed her right leg over her left, crinkling her grey pantsuit.

She looked positively radiant. 
Devon wasn’t sure she had ever seen Hadley quite like this.

“Yes, I am,” Devon said staring
at her friend.  “There’s something different about you.  I can’t put my finger
on it.”

“I moved in with someone!” Hadley
squeaked, unable to hold in her excitement.

“Already?” Devon asked, her mouth
falling open.  “You’ve only been here for six months!”

“I know!  It’s so new and so
fresh, and I probably shouldn’t, but I did.  I just had to!  Wait until you
meet him.  You’ll see he’s perfect!” Hadley gushed.

Devon tried to keep her smile as
natural as possible.  She had hoped that they would spend time together, just
the two of them, like old times.  Not that she wasn’t happy for her friend. 
She was.  It would just be different.

“Congrats.  I’m so happy for
you,” Devon told her.  “That must be why you’re practically glowing.”

“You have
no
idea, Dev. 
You’ll get to meet him tonight.  Can’t wait!”

The L slowed down and Hadley
stood, indicating that this was their stop.  Devon stared down the stairs,
cursing the person who had decided escalators weren’t needed in this town. 
Flying down the stairs in front of Devon, Hadley seemed to forget her earlier
offer of assistance.  Devon grumbled under her breath as she hauled her bag to
the ground level.

“We’re going to go this
restaurant that I love.  It’s kind of a you-have-to-know-it type of place.  I
think you’ll like it.  It’s right around the block, so let’s eat first, and
then we’ll take your stuff to my place,” Hadley said, walking into traffic
without a backward glance.

She’s going to kill herself
,
Devon thought.  She waited for traffic to stop before following Hadley.

“What is this place?” Devon asked
when she finally caught up.  As she rolled her suitcase behind her, it made
clicking sounds every time it hit a bump in the sidewalk.

“Just a restaurant.  Nothing
fancy, but my friend Brennan works there as a bartender.  It’s
the place
right now if you know what I mean,” she said.

Hadley turned down an alleyway
and then immediately walked into a restaurant.  Devon hadn’t even seen the
door.  She read the sign,
Jenn’s Restaurant
,
over the door and
went inside.

Hadley was right about the
restaurant.  It wasn’t anything fancy, but the place was slammed.  It was on the
smaller side, and all the tables and booths were full of young professionals
still in their suits after leaving work.  Although some had stripped down to
their button-up shirts, Devon felt woefully underdressed even if the atmosphere
was welcoming.

As Hadley veered through the
crowd, people on all sides called out hellos to her.  She elbowed a couple out
of the way and took the last two remaining seats in front of the bar.

“You’re popular,” Devon muttered,
plopping down in the seat next to her.

Hadley had always been popular
though.  She radiated energy, and people seemed to gravitate toward her
spontaneous personality.  Hadley always seemed to be going, going, going and
waiting for life to catch up with her.  Devon had missed Hadley’s fast-paced
mindset.

Hadley just shrugged with a
confident smile on her face.  “Ay!  Walker!” she called, leaning over the edge
of the bar.  When he didn’t immediately respond she called out again,
“Brennan!”

The bartender turned in their
direction and shot Hadley an exasperated expression.  He was good-looking in
the she-shouldn’t-go-anywhere-near-that kind of way.  He had devious eyes and a
knowing smile that made Devon wonder what secrets he had tucked up his
sleeves.  He wore a barback uniform of black slacks and a white button-up
rolled up to his elbows with a towel slung over his shoulder.  His brown hair
was styled in a way that made it appear he hadn’t spent any time on it.

“Gimme me a minute, Hadley.  I’m
with a customer,” Brennan called.

“What do I look like?” she asked
with a sassy smile.

“An annoyance,” he said loud
enough for everyone to hear.

While the other customers
snickered like this interaction was commonplace, Devon was having a hard time
peeling her eyes off of the bartender.

He definitely has bad news
written all over his pretty face
, she thought

Hadley huffed but slumped back
into her seat with a roll of her eyes.  “He’s always like this.  You can’t get
his attention even when it’s not this busy.”

Devon nodded, feeling completely
out of her depth in the big city.

A couple minutes later, Brennan
walked over to them and rested his forearms on the front of the bar.  He cocked
a smile like he owned the place. “The usual?”

“Yeah.”  As Brennan began pouring
her drink, Hadley continued, “This is my friend Devon.  She’s here visiting on
her summer break.”

“Hey,” he said, tipping his head
at her while he mixed the drinks.  “I’m Brennan.”

“Hey,” Devon murmured back,
meeting his gaze.

“Where ya from?”  He slid
Hadley’s drink toward her and began making another.

“Well, I go to Wash U in St.
Louis, but my parents live in Nashville,” she told him.

He slid a mostly clear drink
across the bar to her.  Devon cautiously picked it up.

“You don’t seem much like a
Southern belle to me,” he observed.

“You’d be surprised,” Hadley butted
in.  “Her parents work in the country music industry.  She’s a Southern belle
through and through.”

“Huh,” he said as if
contemplating this information.

Then, he just shrugged his
shoulders like he had come to a conclusion.  Devon wondered what it was.

“Well, you two having dinner?”

“Yeah,” Hadley told him.  “I’ll
have the chicken, and she’s going to want the shrimp.”

Devon glanced over at her in
frustration.  They hadn’t even looked at a menu.

“I promise you’ll like it, Dev. 
Don’t worry!”

Brennan nodded and then left to
go put in their orders.  Devon noticed he wasn’t bad to look at from the
backside either.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Hadley
cried, throwing her arms around Devon.  “I have so much to show you.  How long
can I keep you?”

“Oh,” Devon began, not yet
figuring out how to have this conversation, “only for a week or so probably.”

“Well, when is your return
ticket?” Hadley asked.

“I didn’t get one,” Devon said.

It was totally something Devon
would have never done.  She always came with a plan, but this hadn’t been
planned.  She had decided she was leaving, and then she had left.  She had
needed to get away and leave the life that was haunting her, destroying her. 
It hadn’t been an easy decision.

But she couldn’t tell Hadley any
of that.  Devon was so happy to see her friend, and maybe all she needed was a
week or so for things to get better.  She couldn’t run away from her life
forever even if she wanted to.

“Whoa!” Hadley cried, putting her
hand on Devon’s forehead.  “You’re turning into me.  How is Reid taking all of
this?”

“Oh, Reid’s fine,” Devon told
her.  “He’s, you know, perfect.”

Hadley gagged.  “If that boy
could get any more perfect, I’d fall dead.”

Devon offered a stilted laugh. 
“Yeah, me too.”

“I’m just surprised he didn’t
bring his ass with you.  You two were connected at the hip last year.”

“Well, he’s spending a lot of
time at home in Kansas City.  Plus, he has to start applying to med schools
this year.  I know he wants to go to Wash U since his dad is a legacy.  It’s
one of the best in the country, but he’s also applying elsewhere,” Devon
informed her, feeling like she’d had this conversation too many times already.

“That just means I get you all to
myself,” Hadley said, grabbing Devon’s arm and pulling her close.  “Lucky me.”

“Yep.  Lucky you,” Devon
responded, wincing.